It’s a little more than 24 hours left to go before the Super Bowl XLIX kickoff begins and it’s time to do the yearly traditional thing: Super Bowl Predictions! But, instead of me picking whichever team I pick and explain to you why I picked that team, I’ll do something different: split myself into two people and debate against myself over which team will win and why.

I had done this thing before in my first stint with the IGN blogging community, but then I took a three-and-a-half year absence because it felt like trolls could do whatever they wanted without any repercussions, serious bloggers be damned. After coming back, I didn’t do the blog for Super Bowl XLVI, but I did bring it back for Super Bowl XLVII and XLVIII. For this year though, it’s going to be a little bit tricky.

Last year, I was fortunate enough to have the Denver Broncos wear orange as their primary color instead of navy blue since that’s the color the Seattle Seahawks wear. For this year, the New England Patriots take the Broncos’ place. Unlike 1985, the Patriots don’t wear red as their primary color, but navy blue. So, how do I determine which team is in navy blue? Thanks to DeflateGate, it’s easy: the Percy arguing for the Seahawks will be in navy blue while the Percy arguing for the side of the Patriots will be in red since the Patriots are in the red.

Last year, during the Tekken X Street Fighter debate, I switched the gender of the person in charge of the debate from male to female to make it more like ESPN2’s First Take, but had changed the name from Topic Selector to The Mediator. Unfortunately, I don’t watch First Take, but I do see clips of it though. After looking up the host’s name for the show (Cari Champion), I decided to make the debate blogs a little bit more like First Take and give The Mediator a name; a first name, but not last as I don’t want to go that far. The host’s name? Carolina! This is going to be fun!

Unlike years’ past, I have done no research on stats to make a point for the other teams, so that’s going to be a little bit weird, but should be exciting at the same time. Without further ado, take it away Carolina!

Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to a new installation of percy99’s Debates! I’m Carolina and I’m sure you’re familiar with the two guys sitting next to me today. To my left is Skip and to my right is Percy. For today’s topic is the yearly tradition: the Super Bowl.

Last year Percy, you picked the Broncos to win and the Broncos failed you miserably. For this year, instead of picking the Patriots, you’re picking the Seahawks, am I right?

You absolutely are Carolina.

So that would mean Skip is picking the Patriots instead?

Believe it or not, that is the case Carolina.

With what happened last year, I would’ve assumed that you would stick with the Seahawks Skip, but that’s sadly not the case. Do you care to explain why you’re picking the Patriots instead of the Seahawks?

Well yes I do care to explain Carolina. Three weeks ago, the Seattle Seahawks played their first playoff game this season and put a great number on the Carolina Panthers. I was confident enough for them to put a repeat on their Week 1 victory against the Packers in the NFC Championship game, only with a weaker Aaron Rodgers since his leg wasn’t at 100% at that time. Boy was I wrong about the outcome of that game!

Even though I had picked the Seahawks to win that game, and they did, the way they won it was absolutely horrific. Green Bay had their way with the Seahawks and Russell Wilson completed less than 50% of his passes with four interceptions to boot. To make matters worse, he threw for less than 100 yards with just five minutes left to play in the game. Granted, they were down by 12 by then, but the Seahawks looked defeated; I’ve never seen the home crowd that quiet in the history of ever. Speaking of the crowd, many of them left the building as they believed, like I did, that the Seahawks’ next game was going to be next season.

It was a great comeback for the Seahawks to make and it was an incredible come-from-behind victory for them as the Packers once again pulled a 4th and 26. I just can’t imagine seeing the Seattle Seahawks going through something like that again and expect to come back and win against a Patriots defense that absolutely sucks in blowing leads.

I’ve seen what the Patriots have done against the Indianapolis Colts. They beat the Colts worse than the last time those two teams met and that was with both under-inflated and correctly inflated footballs. They made Andrew Luck, the second coming of Peyton Manning, look like JaMarcus Russell and the Colts had no running game to begin with. With Russell Wilson looking awful in yet another playoff game, I’ve lost all hope in the Seahawks and since the Patriots aren’t going against the New York Giants, they have a great shot at winning the Super Bowl, so therefore, my money’s on the Patriots.

Your response Percy?

Skip, I can’t believe what I’ve just heard coming out of your mouth. Do you know what I’m hearing coming from you? I’m hearing the exact same thing I said about the Seahawks last year and it resulted in me being completely wrong. I had argued that Russell Wilson was looking very disappointing and that the Seahawks defense couldn’t bail him out on each and every game and if he didn’t step his game up in the Super Bowl, the Seahawks would lose.

Did Russell Wilson step his game up? Yes he did! Did he put up monster numbers? No, he didn’t. Why? Because he didn’t need to! All he needed to do was play a good game and the defense would do the rest. You and I saw the score: 43-8. It was the second most-lopsided victory in Super Bowl history behind Super Bowl XXIV’s San Francisco and…..Denver Broncos when the 49ers won 55-10. We were fortunate to be too young to watch that stinker of a game, but last year’s Super Bowl was so embarrassing that I fell asleep on the game on purpose. It was so embarrassing to see my Broncos fail that I burned my only Broncos jersey that I ever had.

Do I regret picking the Broncos over the Seahawks? No, I do not. I couldn’t pick the Seahawks unless Russell Wilson impressed me enough to trust him and the Seahawks offense to make the defense look like beasts. With last week’s game, he showed how much heart he had to this game. Any other quarterback would feel like the worst player in the game with abysmal numbers that he had against the Packers, but did he give up? No! He continued playing and thanks to the Packers’ special teams and defense choking big time at the worst moment possible, he persevered and won the game. If that isn’t enough to have anybody trust Russell Wilson, then I don’t know what does.

One last thing to why I’m picking the Seahawks and then I’m done: I’m a firm believer of the motto defense wins championships. It doesn’t matter what sport you’re playing, if you don’t have solid defense, you can’t win. Football’s the best sport when it comes to that motto and ignoring that motto got me to lose big time last year. Since the Seahawks once again have the best defense in the NFL, I’m not going to make that same mistake again, so I’m picking the Seahawks.

Now that you guys have said your peace, let’s talk about the story that blew up social media and has been talked about in the sports community and Skip you talked about it a little bit: DeflateGate. The morning after both the Seahawks and the Patriots locked up their spot to going to the Super Bowl, it had been reported that the Patriots were using under-inflated balls to gain an advantage against the Colts.

Reports have said that under-inflated balls were used for rainy situations as the grip would be better suited for the condition and the ball would be less slippery. After some investigation, it had been reported that 11 of the 12 footballs the Patriots used in the first half were under-inflated. Is this a problem for the Super Bowl going forward Percy?

It’s not going to be a problem for the Super Bowl because the officials will take very good care of the footballs and make sure they’re not tampered with before opening kickoff. Like Skip said, it didn’t matter what the Patriots did with the football, they made the Colts look like four-year-olds out on that field that day, so there was no cheating at all.

The problem though is that the New England Patriots don’t know how to get themselves out of trouble when it comes to either alleged cheating or confirmed cheating. Let’s look back to 2002, when the Patriots coincidentally won the Super Bowl after 9/11. When the Patriots went against the Oakland Raiders in the AFC championship game, Tom Brady obviously fumbled the football, but the officials ruled it an incomplete pass. You mean to tell me that if a quarterback went to throw a football, faked it and then fumbled the ball before he could get back in search mode, it’s considered an incomplete pass? The NFL had lost their fricking minds that day and lost it throughout this whole season with the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson situation!

Now sticking with 2002, the Patriots had been accused of having someone from their staff go to Rams’ practices and study their practices so that the Patriots would have answers for those schemes and it worked out pretty much perfectly. Now let’s go to 2007 and SpyGate. Bill Belichick had a guy working in his crew secretly record the Jets’ staff doing hand signals that was telling the Jets what plays to run. Unfortunately for Bill Belichick, the coach of the team at the time, Eric Mangini, was a former protégé of his, so he knew what Bill Belichick was up to. The league did an investigation, found the Patriots in the wrong and fined Robert Kraft, the owner, $250,000 while Bill Belichick was fined $500,000. The Patriots weren’t accused of cheating since then until now, but that’s what happens when you appear to be so good while cheating.

That’s where I’ll have to stop you right there. The cheating allegations have been going on for a long time, but each time, except one, had no merit whatsoever. With regard to Super Bowl XXXVI, did everybody forget that the game ended with a game-winning field goal from Adam Vinatieri? Despite the Patriots looking good that game, the Rams made it a game late and it took a field goal from Adam Vinatieri to win it. If it was a blowout, then maybe they had cheated, but since it hadn’t been proven that the Patriots cheated that game, we should believe that they indeed did not cheat to win Super Bowl XXXVI.

With SpyGate, there’s no question that they cheated. But as Bill Belichick had said last week, they were doing hand signals in front of 80,000 people and everybody had the chance to see it. Not only that, but every team was doing what his team was doing; it just so happen that Eric Mangini didn’t like losing to his old boss and he decided to snitch on him. That was so much of an asshole move that Eric Mangini has not been a head coach since he was fired by the Jets, not counting the Cleveland Browns of course since when have they been relevant lately? Rex Ryan gets hired by the Bills days after he was fired by the Jets, but no head coach wants to hire Eric Mangini as a head coach? He should’ve taken his loss like a man and moved on to the next game!

With DeflateGate, it didn’t matter what kind of condition the footballs were in, the Colts totally sucked against the Patriots like they usually do. When the footballs were allegedly deflated in the first half, the game was 17-7 Patriots at halftime. When the footballs were correctly inflated during the second half, how many points did the Colts score? Zero! How many did the Patriots score? 28! The Patriots scored four times more than the Colts’ final score when they didn’t “cheat” than when they did? It sounds more like somebody on the Colts can’t take their loss like a man and move on to either the Pro Bowl or next season like everybody else!

If the Patriots are found to have deliberately deflated their own football, what would happen to them? Are they going to have to forfeit their contendership at the Super Bowl and have the Colts take their place? Are they going to start the game with -11 points? No, all they’re going to get is fined and a possible loss of a first round pick. That’s it? They picked up Tom Brady in the 6th round; they don’t need a first round pick! The Super Bowl will go on as usual and DeflateGate will be nothing but yesterday’s news. Move on people!

And speaking of moving on, let’s move on to the running backs. The Patriots have a tendency to run the football with many running backs at their disposal while the Seahawks have a beast of a running back with Marshawn Lynch. Why do you think these teams’ running games will be effective in the Super Bowl?

We’ve seen Carolina what could happen if the Patriots all of a sudden have no running game. Throughout the second half against the Ravens, do you know how many times the Patriots ran a running play? None! Nada, nil, zilch, no comprende! They were fortunate enough that the Ravens’ defense didn’t have Ray Lewis out there as they couldn’t stop Tom Brady and his 100% passing game. With the Seahawks, they’ll end up playing up to the Seahawks’ strength and that’s the passing defense.

We don’t have to worry about Marshawn Lynch because as it’s been mentioned time and time again, he’s a beast. You’ve seen Marshawn not talking to the media or saying very few words with the media as he’s not much of a talker. Why? Because he’s the type of guy who lets his game do the talking for him and his game has been consistently phenomenal. There’s not one game in which he’s had a bad game and that’s because he eventually finds holes in the defense and he gets big yards every time. And also let’s not forget the Seahawks’ #2 running back Russell Wilson.

Russell Wilson is the smartest quarterback to have ever played this game. He knows when to run with the ball and he knows when to throw the football. He gains big yardage when he needs to run and there’s not a single defense who can stop him, not even the Patriots. Tom Brady can’t run and that Seahawks defense will eat him for breakfast if he ever tries to run away from them, but the Patriots will not find a winning situation against the Seahawks and they’re going to eventually see that the Giants aren’t their only kryptonite in the Super Bowl in this century.

Wow! Wasn’t that one of the biggest piles of human turds that has ever been uttered out of your mouth! This is Tom Brady and Bill Belichick’s 6th Super Bowl appearance while this is only the Seahawks’ third Super Bowl appearance. The Patriots have more experience in this game than everybody on the Seahawks. Oh, and guess who was the Patriots’ head coach before Bill Belichick took over? Why, it’s your boy Pete Carroll!

The Ravens defense was a pretty good defense against the run. It didn’t matter which running back the Patriots used, the Ravens had an answer against them; it’s just too bad their passing defense wasn’t even half as good as their run defense. Usually I would brag about how much better my team’s running back is against your running back, but there’s no need to do that because we have many useful running backs at our disposal that they’ll tire out the Seahawks defense pretty easily.

Let’s take a look at LeGarrette Blount. This guy was with the Pittsburgh Steelers at the start of the season and he was their best running back. He didn’t start, but he was a great contributor to their team, if they’d let him run that is. On the last game as a Steeler, he was dressed to compete, but he didn’t get used at all. He was so upset about it that he walked back to the locker room early. Instead of the Steelers suspending him for a game or two for doing such a thing, they released him. If they hadn’t released him, they could’ve stood a chance against the Ravens in the wildcard game. With LeGarrette Blount being in the Super Bowl instead of watching the Super Bowl at home, it shows that Mike Tomlin should be fired for not knowing how to use his best running back.

Not only do the Patriots have LeGarrette Blount, but they also have Stevan Ridley, Jonas Gray and James Vereen. All of those running backs bring stuff to the table that the other guy doesn’t and Bill Belichick will start either running back based on the weakness of the opponents’ defense. The Seahawks want to say that Rob Gronkowski’s not that good, but I’m here to tell you that the Seahawks defense aren’t that good. Richard Sherman isn’t as great as he claims to be and he’s no Darrell Revis, not even close to his level.

Marshawn Lynch hates to talk to the media, but not talking to the media nets him a fine. Grabbing his crotch when he goes for the touchdown nets him a fine. That guy’s ugly presence on my television screen nets him a fine. He’s a walking casino machine everywhere he goes and I’m glad the Patriots have nobody like that on their team.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! Whoa! I have to put a stop right there because I’m not going to let you disrespect Marshawn Lynch like that and let you get away with it! His ugly presence on your television screen nets him a fine? You must be out of your damn mind with that nonsense! If Marshawn Lynch was being fined just for playing football, he wouldn’t be on the damn field balling like he usually does.

I was speaking metaphorically you idiot.

Idiot? Idiot!? Man you’re lucky you’re just another version of me because the last time somebody called me an idiot, I blocked him! And since you metaphorically said that Marshawn Lynch’s presence nets him a fine, I’ll metaphorically declare that Rob Gronkowski’s overrated.

Sure, he has 10 or more touchdowns every season, but that’s only because he hadn’t faced the Seahawks defense. Jeremy Lane made an excellent point by saying that if they get physical with him, which is what they do to receivers all the time, he won’t catch footballs. Tom Brady relies on Rob Gronkowski so much, he looked lost in the first four games of the regular season when Gronk wasn’t playing due to injury. All the Seahawks have to do is make Rob Gronkowski so irrelevant that Tom Brady can’t rely on anyone else to save his life.

Let’s look at the receivers that he’s got: Brandon LaFell? Julian Edelman? Danny Amendola? They’re garbage receivers! They’re no Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Deion Branch! With no other receivers, Tom Brady looks like a garbage quarterback who deserves to come out of the 6th round!

And your Seahawks’ receivers look even better? The Seahawks’ receiving core’s so nonexistent, I don’t even know one person who’s on that team by memory! Sidney Rice? Retired! Golden Tate? On the Detroit Lions! Percy Harvin? They traded him to the Jets! So, who do they have? After having to look at their roster list because there isn’t a receiver I can remember except for Luke Willson, who’s a tight end by the way, I see Doug Baldwin, Jermaine Kearse and another bunch of no-name receivers. Do you seriously believe that those guys are better than Brandon LaFell, Danny Amendola and Julian Edelman? You must be dreaming if you think that’s possible!

Oh, and speaking of dreams, do you care to explain how stupid the Seahawks’ Twitter account was when they used a Martin Luther King, Jr. quote to mention the historic comeback the Seahawks made? Here, take a look at this page! Taking the first step from fixing racism issues as a way to talk about coming from behind to win a football game? What the hell were they thinking with that!

You know what? While we’re at race issues, and I’m sorry to go a little off topic here and I’ll get back to that, let’s talk about the forever idiot Charles Barkley. How the hell are you a black man in his 50s and don’t know if slavery was as bad as it was back then? I’m 29 years old and I already assume that everything we saw on the movie Django Unchained was just the nice version of how whites treated blacks back then!

Black slaves started off as prisoners in Africa who were being shipped to America for the amusement of white slave owners. They were treated like crap, fed crap literally and had to room with each other naked while sleeping on their own urine and feces. If they died before they made their trip, then their bodies were tossed overboard for the sharks to eat. If there were no water creatures to eat their bodies, then their bodies were buried underwater.

Once they were brought to America, they couldn’t do ANYTHING they wanted to do because they were at the will of their master. They had to pick cotton, do daily chores and slept in uncomfortable conditions and what did they get in return? Absolutely nothing! Some of those slaves were wrongfully imprisoned before they became slaves, but the conditions were so unfair even for convicted felons. Then, when it came time to have children, the men were forced to have sex with a female slave and if he refused, he would get beaten and the slave master would rape the female slave.

When slave children were born, they would be separated from their parents and be sold to other slave owners, doing slave work and being totally defenseless. The whites in those times were so racist, it makes whites today feel embarrassed to have been born of that race. I didn’t even go into more detail of the struggles black slaves went through, but I know enough to know that slavery was brutal back then. If Charles Barkley has less knowledge of slavery than I do, then it shows why I can’t take ANYTHING he says seriously even in basketball!

I only have one thing to say about that: amen my brother. Amen!

Thank you! Now let’s go back to your Seahawks and their Twitter. They were smart enough to delete that tweet, but they weren’t smart enough to post that tweet in the first place. It was distasteful, it made a mockery of the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s and they made it seem like the Seahawks’ comeback victory against the Packers was better than anything Dr. King did while he was alive. They ought to be ashamed of themselves for putting up a tweet like that!

And they were. It was a tweet done in poor tastes, but there’s one thing that tweet didn’t do: affect the outcome of the game. That tweet was the fault of someone in the Seahawks’ social media office; it had nothing to do with the players and the coaches on the field. Since it’s a part of news nobody knows about anyway, it’s not going to be a distraction for the Seahawks. Even if people did know about it, it’s been overlooked thanks to DeflateGate as DeflateGate has EVERYTHING to do with the game. Once those footballs pass the inflation tests, the Patriots are going to be screwed. Mark my words!

I’m sorry you guys, but we’re just about to run out of time. We only have time for one more question and it requires a quick answer. What do you predict will be the final score, starting with you Skip?

Patriots 24-14.

The point spread from last year was abysmal; everybody lost money because of that lopsided victory. I don’t expect a lopsided victory from either team happening again, so I’ll go with Seahawks 21-17.

And with that, it’s the end of the debates. Join us again next time when these gentlemen talk about exclusives in videogames. See you next time!

I was initially going to take a pass on doing this, but DeflateGate caused me to change my mind as it was too interesting not to talk about. Both Percys had some great points and I have to be reminded that Charles Barkley will say something stupid that’ll get me to shake my head in disgust. Other than that, who do I pick? Well, that one’s easy for me: the Seahawks!

Last year, I felt like the Seahawks and Broncos were evenly matched, so it was difficult for me to choose which team I wanted to choose. I don’t regret picking the Seahawks, but I’m picking them this time because defense wins championships. I am a firm believer of that and I got away from it last year because I didn’t trust Russell Wilson, forgetting that Ben Roethlisberger played worst in his first Super Bowl win. So, because of that and not anything relating to DeflateGate, I’m picking the Seahawks to win. Oh, and I did not burn my Broncos jersey for the record!

As far as the next debate blog goes, that one will not only happen, but it’s the next blog you can expect from me. I can’t wait to talk about that issue from both sides! Until that time comes, I’m out and go Seahawks!

This blog is a gaming blog, so the list has everything to do with games. After the blowout that was the rage blog of 2013, this blog was ironically the first blog I had typed out. Since I wanted to avoid negativity of any kind online, I thought it would be inappropriate to post this blog after that rage blog. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the right time to post it, which eventually became forgotten. It was after looking at my 2013 blogs folder when I realized I hadn't posted it yet. The opposite of this will be posted some other time, but until then, enjoy the blog if you can and I'm out!

When we see a TV show that we like so much after it made its debut, we hope that another season gets done because we want more. When a new movie comes out and it catapults us, unless the story says otherwise, we want a sequel because we want to see more of those characters. When we play videogames, a new IP’s success will warrant a sequel as we want to play as those characters more in a new environment. Sometimes, sequels can be a bad thing.

Why do I believe that sequels can be a bad thing? Because sometimes, sequels are done in a way where we’ve already seen them before (The Hangover Part II), everybody involved forgot what made the original work, or they tried to do too many things different that it ended up falling flat. Since I’m limiting this on games, I will talk about the top 5 sequels that, in my opinion, were done wrong.

To be critical and fair about my criticisms, I’ve only narrowed the sequels down to games I’ve played, so Mass Effect 3 and Resident Evil 6 are off the hook; I’ll leave their criticisms to you guys. Also, since I couldn’t think of two games that weren’t sports games, I’ve decided to add a couple of sports games into the mix. As a matter of fact, I’ll start this list off with two sports games, both of them happened to be made by EA Sports. Let’s start with a game from the previous generation…

NBA LIVE 2005

The biggest selling point about NBA Live 2005 was NBA All-Star Weekend mode. EA Sports had that in the past with the 3 Point Shootout, but 3 Point Shootout was the only mode from All-Star Weekend that was in the games. With this game, 3 Point Shootout made its return and making its debut was the Slam Dunk Contest. You could create your own dunks and be judged by former Slam Dunk champions and the possibilities were nearly endless. It’s quite amazing though that EA Sports spent so much time promoting that feature that they didn’t talk about the actual 5-on-5 matchups. Oh my god was that SO disappointing!

There were some problems with NBA Live 2004, but nothing so drastic. Okay, so the players were a little too big on the basketball court and it seemed to be too easy to block shots. Those were “fixed” in NBA Live 2005, but then things went in the wrong direction. First off, what the hell was EA Sports thinking with the graphics of the game? The graphics looked like you was playing a PSOne game no matter which system you played the game on!

The character models were too thin (even Shaq looked skinny. How is that possible!), the picture was too disgusting to look at, and to add a little bit of cherry on top, the framerate was absolutely atrocious. I couldn’t bother playing the game on my PS2 because of how choppy it ran; it made me want the GameCube version instead. Although the framerates were better on GameCube, there was no denying that EA Sports did a piss poor job at making sure the game ran at a steady framerate. Combine those things with an unbalanced gameplay and this game was just a terrible basketball game. They did good with NBA Live 06, but NBA Live 2005 was just not a very good basketball game for NBA gamers; NBA 2K5 definitely took the crown on that one!

You can expect the next sports game to be a Madden game, but the only question is which Madden did I feel was a disappointment? This one might be a case of I should have seen this coming thanks to previous games, but how could I know when it was the first Madden game I picked up on PS3? That Madden game is…

MADDEN NFL 09

On second thought, I think that even people who played Madden NFL 08 on Xbox 360 and PS3 were pretty pissed at how Madden NFL 09 turned out to be. I had been playing Madden on the GameCube since Madden NFL 2002 (with 2003 being the exception because I had gotten 2003 on PS2; never went back to PS2 since) and Madden NFL 08 was the last game I picked up for GameCube. It was also the last GameCube game released on the system.

Since I didn’t want to deal with Madden NFL 09 on PS2, I decided to get a PS3 and get Madden NFL 09 on there. I guess I should’ve known there was going to be issues galore with this game when the cover athlete became the first “retired” NFL player to grace the cover of the series, only to unretire and get traded to the New York Jets, thus messing up the cover.

Madden IQ sucked; the constant change in difficulty based on your skill was something no gamer needed in the past and they definitely didn’t need it in the present nor the future. The game needed a Day 1 patch, the editing player option had players behind a tinted screen, making it hard to see and get skin color right on Create A Player, the game NEVER mentions when you’ve filled your CAP space, the AI quick snapped all the time before a patch fixed that (yet Madden NFL 10 brought that back and never had the option to change it, thus why I quit Madden for good), the replays had a blue screen filter on it, a total lack of a broadcast camera angle if you wanted to see CPU vs. CPU, no referees and sideline markers on the field, and the list goes on. This game was so bad that Operation Sports forums had nothing but bad things to say about that game.

I only played the game once and the CPU quick snap on non-audible plays made things frustrating as I couldn’t adjust my defense. Even after the patch there were still problems with the game; it was like EA Sports just didn’t care for a 20th anniversary game and this was the case of what happens when a monopoly happens. Nobody has forgiven EA Sports nor the NFL for that dumb exclusivity move and both companies will never be forgiven unless the NFL lifts the exclusivity rights from EA Sports and brings back other 3rd party developers to create their own NFL games. And I’m done talking about this pathetic excuse of a football game!

WWE SMACKDOWN! Vs. RAW 2006

I have no idea to this day why people love this game. This game is a pathetic attempt of a wrestling game and it showed how much THQ didn’t care about the franchise, just as long as people were dumb enough to pick up a copy of a flawed videogame. It shouldn’t have taken that long, but sooner or later, fans started to get fed up with THQ and questioned their motives about the WWE games. If there was anytime for them to be frustrated, it should’ve started with this game.

After Here Comes The Pain, THQ and Yukes tried to top or even match that game with SmackDown! vs. Raw, but it just didn’t live up to the hype. Sure, it had better graphics and sure it had some new modes and such, but it just wasn’t as fun as Here Comes The Pain. Then SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006 came and wrestling games for a while were ruined.

The only good thing about that game was its graphics, but that’s only if you ignore the fact that every male who wrestles without a shirt have 6 packs (even Ric Flair) and every diva don’t have the right figures. Oh, and speaking of divas, whoever came up with the Create a Wrestlers feature for that game deserved to be fired for not understanding how the female body works. SmackDown! vs. Raw had gotten it right for the most part, but on here, curves were like a joke. Try to create any female wrestler who had wide curves and it would be impossible because she’d look like a badly drawn cartoon. Plus, who thought that having everybody wrestle in low-cut everything was the best idea ever? A sign that they didn’t care!

They introduced a feature that all sports games use which is the balance meters, but they were totally useless. Not only would the CPU reverse your moves even on the easiest difficulty level, but they reversed more often than the previous games even when the reversal sliders are all the way down to zero. I’ve seen ineffective sliders before, but this one was the absolute worst; why bother having it there when it’s not going to be used anyway? Total waste of my time!

This game also had the audacity to include a stamina meter to try to make this game as fair and balanced as possible. When this game gives total favor to the CPU, there is no such thing as balance. The stamina meter does NOTHING in terms of selling moves; everybody’s John Cena when it comes to that. If stamina does nothing in terms of how long somebody stays down, then what was the point of the feature being in there in the first place? To stop people from running around the ring? That’s it? Yeah, totally a useless feature altogether!

It was nice that they included Create An Entrance, but guess what? I can’t use it! Do you want to know why I can’t use it? Because of one feature that a lot of people just chose to ignore back in 2005: long load times! Every single time I want to preview the entrance, it takes forever for the thing to load. It’s like why did you even bother to put this on PS2 if you knew it was going to load this slow? Put the game on Xbox you idiots! At the time, SmackDown! games were exclusive to PlayStation systems, so you have one flawed game on a system that shouldn’t have ran it in the first place. It’s quite surprising that THQ folded this year instead of the previous decade.

This next game, I should’ve gotten on PC instead of the PS3, but it was still going to have some problems no matter what…

RESIDENT EVIL 5

This game is the reason why I was skeptical of Resident Evil 6 and after watching a gameplay demo of RE6 last year during the NBA Finals, I couldn’t believe what I saw: somehow the story I was presented so far showed that RE6 had a worse story than RE5 and I didn’t think that was going to be possible! Then again, RE Operation Raccoon City had people fearful of what RE6 might turn out to be. But we’re not talking about how RE6 was a sequel done wrong; we’re talking about RE5!

There were a couple of instances that should’ve told me that this game was going to be a disappointment. The first instance was the fact that Shinji Mikami left Capcom shortly after RE4 came out on the PS2. At the time, RE games were exclusive to the GameCube and it was expected of RE4 to be only on the GameCube. Capcom claimed that RE4 wasn’t a part of that agreement, but GameCube cases never rectified that until RE4 became a Player’s Choice game. Talk about miscommunication!

The second instance was the demo. I hated Sheva as my partner (and after having the game, I hate Chris as a partner more) and I hated how the item system was done. I also hated the limited ammo I had and the direction the game was taking. If it wasn’t for my brother playing co-op with me, I would’ve totally passed on the game; I wish I did.

The last instance I should’ve known the game was going to be a disappointment was when I bought the game along with a 250GB HDD for my PS3 from NewEgg. At the time, 250GB was the largest I could find that was affordable and it was $80. Also I have to add in the fact that the HDD has 7200rpm as opposed to 5400rpm like PS3 HDDs do. When my package arrived, my HDD was there, but not RE5. I let NewEgg know about it and they shipped me a copy of the game free of charge. What I experienced was horror, but not in the way the game was supposed to do.

I was shocked to play the whole game and find out that your inventory doesn’t get an upgrade at all. What the hell! That made inventories very cluttered; you definitely need infinite ammo! Oh, and speaking of infinite ammo, your partner will be so trigger happy that infinite ammo will be necessary so that they don’t leave you being the only one doing all the shooting. And if you both have infinite ammo? Well Capcom failed to add in the intelligent part of the AI to let them be aware of the fact that you have infinite ammo. What do I mean? They’ll still pick up ammo even when you and they don’t need it! Then they have the audacity to give it to you! I don’t need any ammo, so stop giving them to me!

Resident Evil stories are known to be stupid, but I was fine with them…until this game that is. This game had action movie sequences here and there and it was pretty much treated as such. Factual errors with physics, continuity errors, questionable decisions by the characters, predictable “surprises”, and totally NOT scary at all! If there was anything scary about the game, it was trying to play it with a controller.

Aiming sucks with the game and I didn’t even bother to see if I could change the sensitivity to the game. Then again, I probably did and didn’t like the result, so sensitivity sucked all around with the game. The default controls were laughable as the game had Gears of War controls, but no moving while aiming; that totally killed the gameplay. Playing on PC, it was headshots all day and my accuracy was better with every weapon. I still had over 50% accuracy on PS3, but it was like 70% or higher on PC thanks to keyboard and mouse. Hell, it was still higher on PC with a PS2 controller!

There’s one more thing I have to talk about where Capcom went wrong with the game: re-release. They released Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition on Xbox 360 and PS3 and pretty much screwed everybody. If you have the PC version of RE5, sorry, no Gold Edition for you! Oh, and to add insult to injury, NO DLC FOR YOU EITHER!! That meant no Lost in Nightmares and no Desperate Escape! Oh, and the extra costumes besides the ones that came with the game? Yeah, PC owners don’t get that either. Oh, and one more thing: Games for Windows Live! Suck it PC owners says Capcom!

If you had the Xbox 360 version of RE5 Gold Edition, you had to use a code to download all the DLC and wait before you could play the game. Why Capcom did that I have no idea; you was better off not getting RE5 Gold Edition if you were an Xbox 360 owner who already bought RE5. Suck it Xbox 360 owners says Capcom!

The PS3 version is the best version of RE5 Gold Edition mainly because the DLC is already in the game! No need for long downloads and no waiting either! BUT! There is a “but” in there! BUT, if you want to play RE5 with the PSMove, then Capcom says this to every owner of the original RE5: SUCK IT!!

To add insult to injury, when asked why the original RE5 didn’t have PSMove support, a rep said that RE5 wasn’t created with the PSMove in mind while RE5 Gold Edition was. They couldn’t just create a patch that added PSMove support like Heavy Rain did? Granted, the PSMove wasn’t ready by the time the game came out, but this was basically a sign of laziness on Capcom’s part. Oops! I’m sorry, I don’t mean lazy; I mean greedy!

Sorry that went on for so long, but that shows how bad Capcom screwed up Resident Evil 5. But that’s nothing compared to the final entry. I was a huge fan of this series, but this game almost got me to not be a fan of it…

TEKKEN 4

I don’t like the current direction of the Tekken games and I’ve decided to take a pass on Tekken Tag Tournament 2 thanks to the demo and the limited customization of character outfits. I had a feeling the series would go downhill when Tekken 6 became a multi-console game, but it wasn’t as downhill as Tekken 4 was.

Tekken Tag Tournament was a great fighting game. Not only was the use of tag mode sweet, but its Bowling mode was addictive; I still haven’t reached a perfect 300 no matter who I use! It was one of the first games on the PS2 and it took advantage of the PS2 hardware quite well. Knowing that Tekken 4 wouldn’t have tag mode, you would expect this game to be just as great as the previous Tekken games; that was not the case here.

First off, this game pretty much took forever to come out. It was expected to come out in 2001, but the game got delayed a couple of times. The first delay was supposed to have the game come out during the summer of 2002, but assuming that they didn’t want to compete with Virtua Fighter 4, they delayed the game again to the fall. Once the game did finally come out, the copyright date still said 2001 no matter where you looked. What the hell was Namco doing all this time!

There was no mention about what caused the delay, but that didn’t matter: Tekken 4 was already off to a bad start before the delay announcement was made. Namco made the mistake by making the roster smaller than Tekken 3 and even had some favorites not make it to Tekken 4. Even if you ignored the roster count, other stuff was lacking as well.

The gameplay was at a slowed pace and didn’t feel like a Tekken game at all, even though the controls were the same as previous Tekken games. The graphics, despite having progressive scan support, were worse than Tekken Tag Tournament. The music for the most part sucked, Tekken Force mode was absolutely terrible, replay mode was a joke as all it did was have you watch the same fight with no tweaks whatsoever (they did it again with Tekken 6) and Tekken Force mode was a pain-in-the-ass to play through. I know I mentioned Tekken Force mode twice, which shows how much I hate that mode. What the hell was Namco thinking when they made this game!

Tekken 4 left a lot of fans disappointed and I was one of them. I didn’t know what to expect from Tekken 5 and I didn’t even think Tekken 5 was remotely possible because of how disappointing Tekken 4 was. Tekken 4 was a good fighting game if you knew nothing about Tekken, but as a Tekken fan, there was so much they could’ve done better, but they didn’t. I was glad Tekken 5 completely revived the Tekken franchise, but sometimes, too good of a thing can be a bad thing and I’ve seen that with Tekken 6. Tekken 6 still retained most of the fun of Tekken 5, so it wasn’t going to make this list. Tekken 4 left a lot to be desired and it didn’t live up to anybody’s promise. And that’s how those sequels were done wrong!

Nearly one year ago today, I had done a self debate on who would win Super Bowl XLVII. I had one side of me pick the Ravens while the other side picked the 49ers. Despite arguing for both sides, I ultimately picked the Ravens to win simply because I wanted the older brother to win since I’m an older brother as well. In case some of you don’t know, I was right in picking the Ravens, although the 49ers put up a good game after that half-hour delay in the middle of the 3rd quarter thanks to half of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome’s power being out; I guarantee that won’t happen at Metlife Stadium this year!

Once again, I’ve decided to do a self debate on this year’s Super Bowl and this time, we have the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos. Just like last year, which side debates on which team has been decided by a Two-Face coin toss. So, here’s how it’ll go down: Percy will argue for the side of the Denver Broncos, so he’ll be in orange while Percy’s other half will argue for the Seahawks. Before Nike became the jersey makers for the NFL, I had and continue to have no idea what kind of blue the Seahawks were wearing, but thanks to the jersey change I now know which color to use: Percy’s other half will be navy blue.

I’m even more fortunate that Denver decided to change their primary color from navy blue to orange as if that didn’t happen, I probably would’ve had Denver be orange anyway, but make Seattle light green or something. Well, I don’t have to worry about that; instead I’ll worry about how both sides give their arguments. I still have no idea who the Topic Selector’s name’s going to be, so he’ll still be Topic Selector at the moment. If anybody wants to be the person who wants to take Topic Selector’s place, step up to the plate!

Without further ado, the debate!

Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to a new year! Also, welcome to a new installment of percy99’s Debates! For this topic, we will talk about who will win Super Bowl XLVIII.

Super Bowl XLVIII will take place in Metlife Stadium, home of the New York Giants and New York Jets. It will be the first cold Super Bowl since Super Bowl XXXIX when the New England Patriots beat the Philadelphia Eagles to win their second consecutive Super Bowl. How the weather will affect the outcome of the game will be determined by these gentlemen shortly.

For this debate, Percy will debate on the side of the Denver Broncos while his doppelganger Samuel will debate on the side of the Seattle Seahawks.

Hey, before we begin, do you mind if I say something for a little bit?

Sure, go right on ahead.

Earlier this week, a blog that I was hoping wouldn’t come out did come out. I was able to see how much I blew things out of proportion even though most of what I said was true. I was immature, I lost my temper, I lost my cool and more importantly, I lost myself. I’ve realized how much of a negative influence Samuel L. Jackson’s been on me, so for that, I no longer want to be called Samuel.

Last year, Percy had called me Skip in reference to Skip Bayless. Since Skip doesn’t curse on TV and I know how much Percy loves Stephen A. Smith, I want to be called Skip from now on.

Wow! You’ve heard it ladies and gentlemen: we’re going into First Take mode! So, let’s get the debate started!

As you guys know, this year’s Super Bowl will be the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos. It will be for the first time in years the #1 offense vs. the #1 defense. The first thing I would like to ask is when the Broncos offense goes against the Seahawks defense, which side will end up on top?

Well first off, I don’t know if anybody can read my text since it’s orange and MyIGN has neglected to include the highlight option so that this orange text could have a navy blue highlight over it. With that being said, it’s going to be the Broncos offense on top and I’ve got plenty of reasons why, but I’ll just stick to the key points.

First of all, Seattle’s not in Washington anymore. They’re not going to have the 12th man on their side like they did back at home and there’s nobody who’s going to raise the 12th man flag for them. Second of all, the Seahawks have not been the same kind of team on the road as they have been at home. They score less, they have less yards, and more importantly, that team is not a well disciplined team at all.

And what do you mean by “undisciplined”? Does it have anything to do with Richard Sherman?

That’s part of it, but Richard Sherman’s not the big problem; the big problem is penalties made. During the regular season, the Seahawks defense have averaged 7.6 penalties per game, which is, believe it or not, dead last in the NFL. During the playoffs, they average 7 penalties per game which ties them for 10th place. If there’s one person who can capitalize on penalties by the opposing team, it’s Peyton Manning.

You would think that a guy who’s 37 years old would have his game go down by a lot, but not Peyton Manning. Despite the numerous commercials he’s done and the number of times he’s yelled Omaha, that guy has thrown 55 touchdown passes in a single season. 55! No other quarterback in the league has done 55 touchdown passes, past and present, and he’s got one of the best 2-back combo running backs in the league with Knowshon Moreno and Montee Ball. If Marshawn Lynch doesn’t produce for the Seahawks, then they have no offense whatsoever Skip and I would love to see you counter my arguments because there’s no dispute over facts.

Well that’s where I’ll have to strongly disagree with you. You can dispute facts and the best way to dispute facts is facts. Here’s one fact that cannot be overlooked: there have been 4 Super Bowls where the #1 offense went against the #1 defense and 3 times out of 4, the defense were the team who came out on top. Not only that, but what’s the mantra we always use? Oh yeah: defense wins championships. And who has the best defense in the NFL for both the regular season and the playoffs? The Seattle Seahawks that’s who!

You talk like the Seattle Seahawks should be afraid of Peyton Manning when in reality, it should be Peyton Manning who should be afraid of the Seahawks. During the regular season, the Seahawks were best in interceptions forced and for points given up per game. We’re talking an average of 1.8 interceptions per game and 14.4 points per game! Looking at the Broncos defense, they force 1.1 interceptions per game which is 12th in the league and they gave up pretty much 25 points per game which is 22nd in the league. You can argue all you want about the lack of Chris Harris and Von Miller, but they’ve been playing like garbage even when those two did play.

In the playoffs, the Seahawks only have one interception, but at the same time, they’re still the best in the league in points given up per game, averaging 16 points given up. The Seahawks will put extreme pressure on Peyton Manning and it will be so bad for him, he’ll retire to Omaha, Nebraska come February 3.

Oh, and one other thing: you say that the Seahawks aren’t the same team on the road as they are at home, but you’re being a little bit hypocritical there. Both the Broncos and the Seahawks are 7-1 at home during the regular season, both teams are 6-2 on the road during the regular season, both teams were the #1 seed in their respective conference and both teams won their home games. If you want to compare Seattle to a strong road team, I suggest you use a team that doesn’t have the same road record as them.

Alright, I’ll have to stop you guys right here before this becomes a heated argument. As we all know, Richard Sherman has had some controversy with his rant towards Michael Crabtree two Sundays ago. It had Erin Andrews so scared, she was afraid of asking him some more questions. Ever since then, people on social media and national media have labeled him as a thug. Do you guys think he is a thug?

Before I answer that question, I want to explain what a thug is. In my definition, a thug is someone who hangs around the corner with his homies, sags his pants no matter the weather and has a tendency to be a little bit uneducated as having street smarts is better than having book smarts, which makes no sense to me. According to Dictionary.com, a thug is a cruel or vicious ruffian, mobster or robber. Not only that, it also says that a thug is one of a former group of professional robbers and murderers in India who strangle their victims.

Let’s review these definitions and compare them to Richard Sherman. Does he hang around the corner with his homies? Maybe he hangs with his homies, but not on a corner. Does he sag his pants no matter the weather? I don’t know; I haven’t seen the guy in a public setting without being interviewed by a TV person. Is he a little bit uneducated? He graduated high school with a 4.2 GPA, attended Stanford, a school for smart people, and graduated with a 3.9 GPA, so of course he’s not uneducated.

Is he a ruffian, which is a tough, lawless redneck or a bully? The media seems to think that he’s a bully because of his rant, but the fact of the matter is he’s not; he was just cutting a promo like he was a WWE wrestler. Is he a mobster? Absolutely not! Is he a robber? Well yes he is: he robbed the 49ers of the chance to go to the Super Bowl! If he doesn’t fit the definition of a thug in any capacity, then the ignorant people who labeled him a thug should look up the word thug and call him something other than what he’s not.

You know, as much as I would like to disagree with you Skip, you’re absolutely right. This is the way of the internet though: people will display their true feelings about something when it’s something that they hate. Back before the internet came out, people would send in hate mail towards celebrities and athletes and now that Twitter has existed, it gives those people direct assess to display their hate towards that person.

Should Richard Sherman have said what he had said about Michael Crabtree? I don’t know. What I do know is that the evidence has shown that Richard Sherman said nothing wrong to Michael Crabtree and it also shows how much of a sore loser Michael Crabtree is. There’s that saying in The Dark Knight that you could either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain and it didn’t take long for Richard Sherman to go from a hero to a villain and that to me is despicable.

What I also find to be despicable is what Richard Sherman said about the word thug. It’s not exactly what he said about the word thug, but the realization of using that word as a label: he had said that the word thug is a more acceptable term to use than the n word. I wish I could use the n word here, but for readers’ sake, I won’t use it. Is what he said true? I would have to believe so as the word thug is a much safer word that the n word, but at the same time, it gives the same kind of negative perception of somebody when that word is being used. That’s all I got to say about it, so let’s move on to another subject.

Alright then! As I promised earlier in the program, I said that you guys were going to debate about the weather being a factor. The Super Bowl is usually held in a warm climate area like a closed stadium or a stadium that’s located in a typically warm city. For this year’s Super Bowl, the weather’s supposed to be in the high 40s by the start of the game and in the high 20s by the end of the game. How much will that be a factor to both teams, starting with you Skip?

Oh, I’m so glad you started off with me Topic Selector because I have to be the first one to mention the major disadvantage the Denver Broncos have in cold weather games. The Broncos typically play in colder weather than the Seattle Seahawks, but there’s one player on that team who’s not accustomed to it: Peyton Manning. Every time I’ve seen Peyton Manning play in cold weather, his numbers are awful. He throws far more interceptions than touchdowns and he loses more than he wins. If it wasn’t for the fact that the weather was in the 60s when the Broncos beat the Patriots, the Patriots would’ve gone against the Seahawks instead.

Then how would you explain the game against the Chargers a week prior? Peyton played like he always plays against them and the Broncos never lost the lead against the Patriots in the AFC championship game. Also, where are the numbers of Peyton Manning in cold weather games? Oh, I got them right here and guess what? Just like everybody on ESPN, you’ve over exaggerated the numbers.

First, we have to disclose that when cold weather is mentioned, we mean 40 degrees or below. In 8 cold weather games, Peyton Manning is 183-261 for 2,360 yards with a 70% completion rating, 19 touchdowns and 10 interceptions with a 105.5 QB rating, also with a 5-3 record to boot. When we average passing yards, he averaged 295 passing yards per game. In essence, in cold weather games, Peyton Manning’s just plain old Peyton Manning, so anything you or the media says about him are totally irrelevant.

Now let’s take a look at Russell Wilson. I don’t have to argue about how he plays in cold weather games because I don’t need to; all I have to talk about is his game period. With the two playoff games I’ve seen him play, he has looked worse than his rookie year. I don’t recall him making any big plays with his arms and the only receiver I know from the Seahawks is Percy Harvin and there’s a chance he won’t be the same player he was when he was in Minnesota. Where’s Sidney Rice when they need him!

Bravo! Congratulations on once again going off subject! The question that was asked was how will the cold weather affect the game for both teams? I gave my argument about how bad Peyton Manning is in cold weather and you disputed that, which I’ll give you credit for. Then you went and talked about how “bad” Russell Wilson is in the playoffs. You can’t argue about how the Seahawks play in cold weather because of one reason: they strive for the cold weather!

When teams play in the cold weather, what’s the typical thing they do? Run the football! And who’s the best running back remaining in the playoffs right now? Marshawn Lynch! Marshawn Lynch has been playing monster football ever since the Seahawks signed him. In the playoffs alone, he is averaging 124.5 yards per game. 124.5 yards per game! The Broncos’ starting running back Knowshon Moreno is averaging 70.5 yards per game, which is a half field less than Marshawn Lynch’s average. Oh, and did I forget to mention that Marshawn Lynch also has a 5 yard per carry average with 3 touchdowns and no fumbles to boot? Those are beast numbers if you ask me!

With the way Marshawn Lych has been playing, Russell Wilson doesn’t need to be at his absolute best; he just needs to not make any mistakes. As long as the Seahawks’ running game gets going, the cold weather will not be a factor at all. What can you say about that Percy?

You want to say that I was off subject with talking about Russell Wilson and his pathetic passing play the past two games, but the truth of the matter is I was on subject. Cold weather means nothing in the National Football League as all 32 teams are accustomed to playing in the cold weather as many or all NFL players have played in cold weather before they stepped foot in their first NFL game. How’s that for being off subject!

Now with Marshawn Lynch, I can’t argue with you there. Knowshon Moreno does average 70.5 yards per game with a 3.8 yards per carry average and has only scored one touchdown, but Knowshon should have no worries about the Seahawks defense. As overrated as the Seahawks defense is, do you know how many yards per carry they allow in the playoffs on average? They average 4.2 yards per carry given up while my Denver Broncos average 3.6 yards per carry given up. Oh, and that 3.6 yards per carry average is second best compared to Seattle’s 5th best.

Oh, and while we’re at it, let’s take a look at the rushing yards allowed average. I swear, you’re going to laugh at this one. My Denver Broncos give up on average 64.5 rushing yards per game, which is the best in the league, while that overrated Seahawks team gives up, on average, 134.5 which is 8th! That’s not only not okay, but it’s also pathetic. Do you know what those numbers mean Skip? It means that Marshawn Lynch will have trouble running the football and since Russell Wilson can’t ball like he did last season and the Seahawks are without their 12th man, they’re totally screwed! The Broncos are going to win baby! The Broncos are going to win!

You can laugh all you want, but when this Sunday comes, you won’t be laughing: you’ll be crying instead. I can guarantee you that!

Well you guys, as fun as this was, I’m afraid we’re going to have to stop you guys here. Before we go, what are you guys’ final scores for your teams, starting with you Percy.

Broncos 36-16.

Skip?

Seahawks 24-12.

That’s it ladies and gentlemen and that’s the end of the debate! I want to thank Percy and Skip on a lovely debate and I hope to see you guys again some other time! Thanks and have a good evening!

Here’s one thing I forgot to mention for Skip: the last time a #1 offense went against a #1 defense was on Super Bowl XXV when the New York Giants defeated the Buffalo Bills 20-19 thanks to the infamous wide right field goal kick by Scott Norwood. Coincidentally, both teams were 13-3 with the AFC team being the high passing, no huddle #1 offense and the NFC being the conservative offense and #1 defense in the league. Not only that, but both teams finished the regular season 13-3. So, judging from those coincidences, this game will be decided by one point and the Seahawks will win thanks to Matt Prater kicking the ball wide right in the closing seconds. Then again, Super Bowl XXV took place in Tampa while Super Bowl XLVIII will take place in East Rutherford; no way that much of a coincidence will happen!

This decision is actually tougher than I thought it would be. Last year, it was easy for me to go with the Ravens because of the older brother factor, but for this year, there’s nothing like it. I do believe that defense wins championships and both teams looked pretty solid on defense. With the offense, Russell Wilson doesn’t look like the quarterback he once was and he didn’t look good in his two games while Peyton looked like Peyton, so it makes the decision much, much difficult.

While I was watching the NFC Championship game, I thought that by the way Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick played, the Broncos were going to beat whoever came out of that game a winner. I did change my mind when I found out that the Seahawks have the best defense in the league, but now I’m not so sure. I still have no trust in Russell Wilson, which makes me have some doubt for the Seahawks. In the end, picking either team’s a risk.

I have to make a decision and I have to do it real soon. I could play the safe route and pick no team, but I don’t want to do that. Since I’m going to pick a team to win, I’ve decided that I’ll go with the Denver Broncos. Seattle will have to prove to me that Russell Wilson’s plays the previous two games were flukes. I hope Percy Harvin can stay the entire game, but we’ll see if he can hold up. Until Seattle proves me wrong, I’m going with Denver. And I’ll wear my very old Terrell Davis jersey too!

Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers. You can’t stand them and they’re unavoidable. You try so hard not to be spoiled about certain events, certain movies or even certain games and yet there goes somebody ruining the story for you. Some people think it’s no big deal if you’ve been spoiled while others think that spoilers ruin the fun of not knowing.

There has been a study done on people being spoiled by a story compared to those who didn’t. As it turned out, people who were spoiled about a story were more inclined to enjoy the story more than the people who didn’t. That should tell us that we shouldn’t be worried about stories, but unfortunately, there are still many of us who don’t like when spoilers happen. To be honest, I’m one of them.

When I watch a TV show, I don’t want to be spoiled by any mention of a show or anything. When this past season of The Biggest Loser happened, I was spoiler free until the season finale. I forgot why I didn’t watch the season finale, but I had it on DVR. Before I could watch the show, I was on TV Guide’s website and they had a link that said something along the lines of The Biggest Loser winner. I highlighted the link thinking it wouldn’t spoil me, but the title of the webpage spoiled everything for me; I was furious when TV Guide did that. That totally ruined the suspense and I was left with wanting to know who won the at-home prize.

Now what if TV Guide had gotten fined or shut down because of that spoiler? What would’ve happened if posting spoilers became a felony? What if by posting spoilers you was arrested and charged for it? That could be very interesting!

In the interest of fairness, let’s just say that it’s not posting spoilers that becomes a felony, but not mentioning that a spoiler is coming up is a felony. What would happen to those who fail to warn their viewers, readers or whomever that what’s about to be mentioned next will contain spoilers? Then we might have a problem!

First off, what should the statute of limitations be when it’s okay to spoil without warning? We typically go with a year or so before it’s okay to spoil things, but what if that became a law? You have one year to either warn about a spoiler coming up or not spoil anything at all; if you don’t exercise those rights, you will be persecuted! That might take things too far!

Let’s look at another example: an example that goes to Siphen.0’s territory which is comics. In the comic book Batman Incorporated #8, at the end of the issue, we’ve found out that Damian Wayne had died by the hands of The Heretic after being impaled by a sword.

Okay, that’s it Percy! You’re under arrest for spoiling a story that hasn’t been a year old yet! Turn around and put your hands behind your head right now!

But officer! That law hadn’t pa-

SHUT THE FUCK UP!! YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT!! ANYTHING YOU SAY CAN AND WILL BE USED AGAINST YOU IN THE COURT OF LAW!!

Sorry for the over exaggeration there, but that’s a little example of what could happen had spoiling a story without warning can get you in jail. But anyway, after knowing about that little unfortunate incident, here’s the kicker: the ending was spoiled before the issue was even released. You would think that it was a hacker or somebody who secretly had access to the story who spoiled it, but that wasn’t the case at all; it was Grant Morrison, the writer of the issue, who gave the ending away!

Let’s say that there are no exceptions to this law: even the author of the story can’t spoil their own stories away unless they get arrested for it. What would happen to that story? Would it be required by law to change the ending because of the spoiler? Will the story be delayed because of a crime that was committed to the story? That’s what’s interesting about the spoiler rule!

Of course, if the spoiler bill became a law, it would piss off a lot of people. Hell, there’s a chance that the bill wouldn’t become a law because of a lot of petitions being made to not turn the bill into law. The only way the bill would turn into a law is if nobody brings up the fact that Congress is proposing the Spoiler Act bill. There may have been instances where the public didn’t know about a bill being turned into law (like the Copyright Alert System), but we have problems trusting the government anyway, so a little secret wouldn’t hurt.

It’s bad enough how our prison system is like and it’s even worse that our country seems to care more about prisons than our education. If the Spoiler Act was to be put in place, you can expect more people to go to prison. But how would anybody know that you spoiled something to someone? Well, physically spoiling things would mean nothing if there are no witnesses, but if there’s a witness or video evidence of somebody spoiling something, then that can put somebody in trouble.

Now let’s look at the main reason why this bill could be proposed: the internet. Let’s face it: you’re more likely to be spoiled by the internet than your friends. If somebody posted a spoiler without warning, the evidence would be right there for everybody to see and that person would be in trouble. Next thing you know, that person’s fanbase would probably riot demanding that person to be free; it’d be like post Rodney King all over again.

Here’s another scenario: what if you were to be fined for posting spoilers without warning? The price to pay would be ridiculous. It could be a couple or a few hundred bucks or it could be thousands of dollars just to discourage anybody to not warn anybody about the spoilers. I don’t know which scenario would happen, but it doesn’t matter: there’s no way this thing can happen!

It’s true that many of us don’t like to be spoiled, but I don’t think we take spoilers that seriously. I don’t think we want the person who spoils something for us to be punished for it. Mostly it’s our fault for either looking for it or being in a situation where we can’t avoid them, but it’s not that much of an inconvenience. I don’t like being spoiled over things and yes I can get upset about being spoiled, but I’ve tried to practice forgetting spoilers and sometimes I do forget about them.

Making spoilers without warning a crime would be ridiculous. There are far more problems in our country that should make spoilers a non-issue. If this thing were to happen, then it’ll show how much our country has gotten downhill. Who’d want to get involved with politics after that? Then again, it might cause some people to study politics more just to undo what those before us got us into. But it is something I’ve been thinking about while I was away from blogging for 40 days.

So what do you guys think about this potential scenario? Sound off in the comments section below!

Hello and welcome to Part 2 of the 10 awesome things that happened to me this year! If you’re reading this, then that means that once again, the the-world-is-going-to-end predictors were wrong! Anyway, a couple days ago, I talked about 5 things that were awesome and in case you guys missed it, here it is! Without further ado, the next 5 awesome things that happened for me this year!

USA WINNING MEDAL COUNTS

I was watching the Olympics 4 years ago and I was a little disappointed that China beat us not only in the gold medal counts, but also in the overall medal counts. Since I’m not an athlete, there was nothing I could do to change it, but I was hoping other athletes would make some changes. Well, the changes were made for the better and it was awesome!

8 years ago, I never thought I would get interested in the swimming portion of the Olympics, but I was wrong. It was pretty exciting and swimming on both genders caught my attention. 4 years ago, that comeback race from the 4x100 freestyle relay in the men’s finals was so excellent, I felt like nothing could top it. Of course, I was concerned about Michael Phelps and how much he had fallen at the beginning of this year’s Olympics. Later on he picked up the pace and won more medals than any other athlete in Olympic history and I was really happy for that.

I watched a little bit of indoors volleyball and the US was doing a good job on the women’s division, but I never saw the men play once, so that sucked. I didn’t see the women in the final four, but that was irrelevant to me because the bigger story was women’s beach volleyball. It was awesome to see Misty May-Treanor and Kerry Walsh-Jennings go against Jen Kessy and April Ross in the Gold Medal game. USA winning gold and silver in beach volleyball was great! Too bad I’ll have to miss DAT ASS of Misty May-Treanor.

It was great while it lasted!

I was disappointed to find out that with gymnastics, there were only 5 people representing each country and I was even more disappointed that Shawn Johnson had to retire due to her knees. DAMN YOU KNEES!! So now I was going to have to rely on the new 5 gymnasts and see if they could take the gold away from the Chinese team. By the way, 4 years ago I too thought that the Chinese team looked too young to compete…that was until I studied their faces and realized that they did look of age; why their bodies said otherwise is beyond my understanding.

It was nice to see Gabby Douglas secure our spot in the gold medal stands during the all-around, but she did disappoint with the un-even bars. McKayla Maroney looked good at the vault finals with the first one, but she bailed real bad on the second one. To make matters worse, I had to see it twice since I saw the first time live on the failure that was NBCOlympics.com and the second time on NBC. Tape delays suck and NBC handled the Olympics coverage poorly! The not impressed reaction on her face was hilarious and she became a meme out of it. It’s actually been reported that she wants to be an action star once she’s done with gymnastics and she already has a catchphrase: I’m not impressed. I think that would be awesome!

It did suck to see Jordan Weber not win the floor finals, but Aly Raisman was there to pick up the slack and win us the gold! Sweet! Then track and field was the usual with the women (Jamaica wins some, USA wins some), but the attacks that Lolo Jones had to endure after finishing 4th on the hurdles was uncalled for, by her teammates no less. With the men, I’ll give that one an exception because who can stop Usain Bolt? That dude is a beast!

I couldn’t watch much of basketball because all but one of their games was on cable and the games were on at times when I was busy doing other things, like watching other Olympic coverage on NBC. When I did watch some games, I didn’t watch the whole thing, but it’s cool though; our undefeated streak grows! Since Mike Krzyzewski’s not gonna coach the 2016 team, I wonder who will coach the team then. Please don’t make it Mike D’Antoni!

One sport that really surprised me was water polo. Since I was killing time one day, I decided to watch some live women’s water polo and couldn’t believe how many of those women (including the Chinese team) had DAT ASS! Instantly I was hooked and understood the game easily for the most part, but missed the gold medal game. Fortunately we won there too!

After three weeks of the event, USA not only had won the most medals, but we also won the most gold medals. Finally we’re back to dominating world sports; at least in the Olympics we are! You can bet that other countries, including China, are going to try to take the gold medal counts away from us in Rio de Janeiro, but we’ll be ready! I wonder how much of DAT ASS we’ll see from the Brazilian women on our television sets by then. Plus, I want to see how NBC will fuck up the 2016 coverage since Brazil’s only 2 hours ahead of New York. Don’t let Vancouver happen again NBC!

I know I’ve gone too long on this topic, but I have to mention one more thing: I missed the last four days of the Olympics because of W2C3 and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Fortunately it looks like the 2016 Olympics will end one week after W2C3. Now I’m ready to move on!

QUIETER PS3

I’ve had my 80GB CECHE01 PS3 for 4 years now and the noise that the PS3 was generating had been pissing me off. If I’m lucky, I’ll be unable to recognize how loud it was getting and of course, summer’s not my best friend when it comes to the PS3 because that’s when it decides to become a major pain in my ass. This past summer, I couldn’t take it anymore; I needed to make a change with the system!

I’ve tried replacing the thermal paste last year and even though my PS3 was running cooler than before, it was still running pretty hot in the back and side. This year I thought that all the thermal paste had dissipated because of how loud my PS3 was and how much heat was coming out, but it turned out that it wasn’t the case at all. Hell, I’ve even gone by some guys’ suggestion and had the PS3 sit on top of my Xbox leaving a bunch of room for the exhaust air to come out and that still did nothing with the hot air and the noise. Well, it was time that I re-researched the issue!

Last year, I did read up about the different blades of a PS3 fan, but I didn’t really pay attention to which fan was better. This year, I did pay attention and realized that my PS3 had the wrong fan inside, so I bought a new fan after W2C3 was over. A day later, the new fan arrived, I made the replacements and couldn’t have been happier. Yeah, the PS3 is still loud at times, but it’s acceptably loud, plus I got better framerates from my older games (especially MGS4) and there’s warm air coming out the back of the PS3 and not the side. I’ve avoided a potential YLOD! Sweet!

This next thing started off as bad, but ended up being great at the end…

NEW FRIDGE

Of course, I was never going to talk about my fridge on any of my blogs ever! But I’m making an exception here because it helps fill up my 10 quota and it was a welcomed change of pace anyway. Let’s talk about my old fridge first!

The fridge I had prior was as old as my sister. My sister’s age? Like the name of the show that stars Jack Bauer, 24! So, because that fridge was 24 years old, that meant that the electricity bill’s way too high for today’s economy. All that juice just for making things cold? That doesn’t make sense!

Here’s the surprising part: that wasn’t the reason why we switched refrigerators! The reason why we had to make the switch was because the freezer part of the fridge died. The ice was melting and food was being thawed out; that sucked. Then, without my knowledge, the same thing was happening to the fridge area. So, a change was necessary!

What fridge did we get? This one!

That my friends is an LG LFX3194SST 2-door refrigerator! There’s actually a door within a door on the right! In case you guys don’t understand what I’m talking about (I had no idea when I was explained about it either), this is what it looks like.

I have no idea how much this fridge cost, but there’s more room for storage in the fridge area and the freezer area than the previous fridge. And this fridge does its job better than the previous one with less energy to waste to boot? Consider me sold! Oh, I forgot to mention that the fridge came to my house on the day my Bears beat the Colts to start the NFL season. How sweet is that!

I know this next topic may look like it was bad, but I’ll post it here anyway and that’s…

POWER RANGERS

Even though I’ve complained a lot about this show, it was still pretty cool to look back and get some nostalgia about the show, even though I forgot almost everything about it. When I picked up the Power Rangers DVD at W2C3, I had no idea that I was going to cosplay as a Power Ranger, but when I came up with the idea, I felt fortunate that I didn’t have to torrent all three seasons to watch it. The video quality however looked like they all came from torrent sites.

Looking up cosplay costumes for Power Rangers was quite interesting too. I’ve never seen so many people so dedicated to not only cosplaying as Power Rangers but also making Power Rangers gear. Yeah, it’s expensive being a Power Ranger (even the cheapest option costs a lot of money), but to see that many people wearing as-much-accurate-as-they-can costumes makes the whole thing seem worth it.

I haven’t watched all of Season 3 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and that’s because they’re irrelevant at this point. Like I said in previous blogs, if Nakia Burrise was going to be at C2E2 this year, I’d change my mind and watch Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers and Power Rangers Zeo. The only question I’ve never answered is why?

What is it about Nakia Burrise that makes me want to meet her? Well first, just look at her! She looks more beautiful now than when she did during Power Rangers. Then second of all, she has partnered with Jessica Rey and Jason Faunt to create this new YouTube channel called No Nerds Here. That channel is going to be a mockumentary of the former Power Rangers as they go through conventions and I think that if I could get a cameo appearance on there in my Blue Ranger costume, it would be sweet! Could that happen at C2E2? Maybe, but it doesn’t hurt to wish!

If it wasn’t for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, I wouldn’t have been introduced to the last part that was great about this year…

KYORYU SENTAI ZYURANGER

I feel like I have to get this out the way right now so that nobody gets this wrong: believe it or not, Zyuranger is actually pronounced juuranger instead of zooranger. I know it sounds more like Jew Ranger (and it pretty much is), but blame that on the Japanese language and not the Japanese being racist; that’s this article’s job! Now that we got that out the way, let’s talk a little bit about the show.

This year marks the 20 year anniversary of Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger’s existence and what better way to celebrate a show I’d never seen before than by watching all 50 episodes? Plus, I didn’t have to torrent all 50 episodes either; thank you Facebook! And the picture quality’s great too! By the way, you have to like Super Sentai TV in order to watch all those episodes.

This is where the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers came from and I’m glad this was the show that Saban decided to take his Power Rangers idea from instead of the Choujin Sentai Jetman. Can you imagine Jason, Zack, Billy, Trini and Kimberly dressed in this costume?

Ladies, yes, but guys, WTF!!

I don’t think I would want to dress like that even as a kid! Plus, Choujin Sentai Jetman’s the last Super Sentai series where one of the Super Sentai members had died and remained that way. How the hell would Saban address that if the Jetmen were the Power Rangers instead? Since the black Jetman was the one who died (although it took nearly two decades to confirm his death), what was going to happen to Zack, assuming he would be the black Jetman? Then again, the black Jetman’s death happened on the season finale of Choujin Sentai Jetman, so there’s an easy workaround there. Zyuranger still got better costumes in my opinion, so good call!

The story of Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger is so much better than Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It’s so captivating and it totally contradicts my original theory that Japan isn’t that good with stories. Maybe they aren’t right now, but Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger is thus far the best story I’ve seen (movie, TV and videogame wise) from Japan my entire life and I’m so happy to have seen it. I wish I could post a review or something about that show, but I’ll save it for next year. I’m just glad to see this series before the year ended!

Well, that’s everything I can think about for this year. Once the new year rolls around, I’ll be buying the rest of my Power Rangers cosplay gear (plus a real camera) and I’ll be waiting for April 26, 2013 for C2E2. Unfortunately, C2E2 will be taking place during the NBA playoffs. Then again, 4 games in a single day’s too much for me and I’ll need a break like C2E2! Until then, this is the final blog of the year and you’ll see the next blog sometime in January. See you in January, Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!